1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a payment card system and, more particularly, to a system and method for dynamically identifying a merchant associated with an authorization request for a payment card.
2. Description of the Background Art
Whether a customer is shopping in a brick and mortar merchant location or visiting an online retailer, he is likely to use a credit card, debit card, gift card, or other payment card in order to complete a purchase transaction. When a customer attempts to use a payment card for a purchase at a merchant, the payment card number (e.g., credit card number), purchase amount, and one or more unique identifiers for the merchant are sent, via a merchant processor (e.g., an acquiring bank), to the issuing bank or other entity responsible for approving/declining transactions for the card. These identifiers typically include a merchant ID (MID) and/or a terminal ID (TID), which are assigned to merchants and terminals, respectively by a merchant acquirer. Issuing banks maintain merchant databases that map merchants to their respects MIDs and TIDs so that they identify the merchant for purposes of fraud detection, marketing, customer analysis, etc. As the issuing banks that approve/decline transactions are usually not the entities that assign MIDs and TIDs to merchants, discrepancies between the MIDs/TIDs in the issuing banks' databases and the MIDs/TIDs currently used by corresponding merchants often arise. They typically occur when a merchant switches merchant acquirers, moves a credit card terminal to a different location, opens a new location, etc. In a typical credit card transaction, while a correct MID or TID is ideal, it is not critical. For example, in the case where a customer uses a credit card to make a purchase, the issuing bank primarily decides whether to authorize the transaction based on whether the credit card holder has sufficient credit for the purchase, not based on the identity of the merchant.
U.S. Patent Publication No. US-2012-0215605-A1, filed on Feb. 21, 2012 with Ser. No. 13/400,888 and titled “System and Method for Providing a User with a Single Payment Card on which Prepaid and/or Reward Balances Are Tracked for Multiple Merchants,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a system and method in which multiple merchant purses are associated with a user's account (which may be associated with a physical or electronic card). Each purse corresponds to one merchant, and represents the user's credit balance with the merchant (e.g., prepaid deposits plus rewards). The balance associated with each merchant purse is separately tracked. In essence, each merchant purse represents a subaccount in the user's account via which credits, balances, or rewards with the merchant are tracked.
In this situation where there are multiple merchant purses associated with the same account, it is critical that the purchase transaction be settled with the correct merchant and, therefore, it is necessary for the payment card processor to be able to correctly identify the merchant sending the purchase authorization request. For example, if the payment card processor cannot identify the merchant or maps the MID in the authorization request to the wrong merchant, the transaction would either be denied or the system would debit the wrong merchant purse. If a customer is constantly denied approval of a purchase request due to a discrepancy in the MID and/or other merchant identifying information, the customer has an unsatisfactory experience with the payment card. Therefore, there is a need for enabling a payment card processing system to dynamically identify a merchant associated with an authorization request that includes an unrecognized merchant identifier.